Various forms of compactors are utilized for increasing the quantity of material in a container which subsequently is to be emptied, so that the material may be landfilled, recycled, or otherwise handled. A typical compactor has a housing or hopper in which the waste material is deposited, and an associated container. The container may be separable or it may be fixed. A reciprocating ram is normally utilized for transferring the waste material from the housing to the container, so that subsequent actuations of the ram will cause the material in the container to become compacted and thereby permit increased quantities of material to be held.
Many types of material are not suitable for compaction, however. For example, pallets, couches and other furniture, refrigerators or other white goods, and other large bulky items heretofore have been collected by vehicles which leave the materials in an unchanged condition. Most landfills charge a "tipping fee" each time a vehicle, such as a waste collection vehicle, deposits material. The bulky materials occupy relatively large volumes of space, thus necessitating more loads than may otherwise be required by their weight, and therefore increased tipping fees need to be paid.
The bulky materials noted above usually are large, not dense. They have not heretofore been subject to compaction, however, because of their materials of construction, size, and other physical constraints. Compaction of these materials would seem to be beneficial in order to increase the amount of material a given transport vehicle could hold, with the result that tipping fees and transportation costs would be reduced. Businesses, municipalities, and others are continuously seeking to reduce their disposal costs, so compaction of bulky materials is one mechanism for minimizing those costs.
There is a need for a compactor assembly which would compact large bulky items in order to permit a lesser number of transport vehicles to be utilized for transporting a given number of bulky items. The disclosed invention meets that need by providing a low speed, rotating auger which breaks the material into reduced sized portions, and then transports the material by continued rotation. Same is thereafter compacted by a reciprocating ram transferring the material to a container.